. >> reporter: that's right. i'm told the vice president is now playing a direct role in these negotiations, trying to get to a deal, a last-minute deal, a key player in the final hours. president obama set off the high-stakes weekend scramble friday night imemployering congressional leaders to take action immediately. >> the american people are not going to have any patience fora i politically self-inflicted wound to our economy. >> reporter: with that harry reid and mitch mcconnell launched a latch-dimp effort to craft a bipt plan to that stop the tax hike going into effect on new year's day. they negotiated all day saturday. saturday night there was an offer. by this morning, a clear sense of optimism and warnings that failure would be unthinkable. >> there are no breakthroughs yet, but there's a real possibility of a deal. >> if we are not able to reach an agreement, it will be dire. >> the morning's optimism turned into the afternoon's pessimism. the senate opened for business at 1:00 p.m. with the ominous p